Twitter reaction to Doug Ford's vision for the Port Lands

Doug Ford has big plans for the Port Lands. Not only would he like to build a mega-mall on the formerly industrial lands, he wants to give Toronto the world's largest Ferris wheel! Who's going to pay for these grandiose ideas? Who else? The private sector!

The fate of the Port Lands — and whether or not Waterfront Toronto will be relieved of its role in planning for the area — is a serious issue. There's justification for concern should the existing vision be scraped. And yet, with suggestions like these it's difficult to greet Ford's vision for the Port Lands with anything other than exasperation and laughter.

Discussion

30 Comments

I hope you all realize - belittling and poking fun at the Ford brothers will only make them dig their heels in further and pursue their agenda harder. As much as I hate the ideas and their willingness to scrap a great plan, I think the debate needs to focus on why their plan isn't better than the one proposed

I think you all should GROW UP! take this as a serious issue the city needs or doesn't need. If the private sector is footing for the bill WHAT IS IT TO YOU!? Canada is one of the slowest countries i've ever been in! the section of the 401 between yonge and allen rd has been under construction for how long now? everything takes ages here!!!

If new money wants to invest in our waterfront to add an fancy mall, LET THEM! that section is no high park!!

I think you all should GROW UP! take this as a serious issue the city needs or doesn't need. If the private sector is footing for the bill WHAT IS IT TO YOU!? Canada is one of the slowest countries i've ever been in! the section of the 401 between yonge and allen rd has been under construction for how long now? everything takes ages here!!!

If new money wants to invest in our waterfront to add an fancy mall, LET THEM! that section is no high park!!

poking fun at the mayor is useless here...and the monorail jokes only show how stupid some ppl are. Get your heads out of your TVs and think of the future instead. Toronto is a pretty boring city for tourism. Once you've taken your friends to the CN tower, what's there to do? a nice walk on the waterfront?? oh, right!....

Sue-Ann Levy at the Sun is "dazzled" by Ford's half-baked plan. We're all captivated by the idea that the private sector would simply pay for it all - "hey, no tax dollars - it's free!" - but good luck finding a private sector investor that's actually going to sink money into this. Oh wait, there's that giant ferris wheel company that's desperately looking for space to build the world's largest ferris wheel in Canada.

And the advantage for the city in installing yet another mall is what, exactly? The suburbs are full of them, many of them with empty parking lots. People don't like shopping in malls, as demonstrated by the failure of so many malls in the GTA. People come downtown to see one thing (the water) and do one thing (spend time with their people). And no one, but no one, from anywhere in outlying areas comes downtown at all, unless they are coming for a specific event, and in that case, they are not here to shop. You want people here from all over the world spending more money, Mr. Ford? Build a world-class waterfront for this city, one that people actually want to see and spend time around. That will bring them.

But it is not private land, and any new plan will still have to go through the same slow approval process that is holding up the current, approved, and funded plan. Scrapping that means the money already spent is wasted... sound familiar, Transit City?

(oops)
with one that lacks any basis in sound planning principles, or even common sense? Who wants to go down to the lake to spend the day in a mall?! What's it to us? It's publicly owned land. Public money has gone into it's planning and remediation. It had the potential to become an integral part of the city, with housing and recreation and businesses, not just a tourist attraction with limited appeal.

not to the Fords, obviously - that's with whom the discussion needs to take place. imagine if everyone spouting off Simpsons references and coming up with outlandish ideas actually put their energy into thinking about what's *specifically* wrong with the Fords' plan, why it's wrong, and what could be done about it.

It's easy to write a catch-all "everything is wrong!" but without a systematic breakdown to point the Fords to, they're just going to dig in and try to get it done.

personally, I would like to know what I, as a citizen, can do to help prevent the Fords from screwing everything up. In addition to writing to City Hall and my councillor

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